Talk:Tsarevich Alexei/@comment-122.150.217.1-20130829043402
Alexei was going to be the Tsar when Nicholas abdicated on 15 March 1917. However, soon Nicholas abdicated for his brother Michael II who ruled for 16 hours. On 17 July 1918, on the night of the deaths the family was awakened and told to dress. They were told they were being moved to a new location to ensure their safety in anticipation of the violence that might ensue when the White Army reached Yekaterinburg. Once dressed, the family and the small circle of servants who had remained with them were herded into a small room in the house's sub-basement and told to wait. Alexandra and Alexei sat in chairs provided by guards at the Empress's request. After several minutes, the guards entered the room, led by Yurovsky. Yurovsky quickly informed the Tsar and his family that they were to be executed. The Tsar had time to say only "What?" and turn to his family before he was killed by several bullets to the chest (not, as is commonly stated, to the head; his skull, recovered in 1991, bears no bullet wounds). The Tsar, the Empress and two menservants were killed in the first episode of gunfire; Marie, Botkin and the Empress's maid Demidova were wounded. Thick smoke had filled the room from so many weapons being fired at close quarters, as well as from plaster dust released from the walls by bullets. To allow the haze to clear, the soldiers left the room for some minutes, leaving all the victims behind. When the soldier returned, Botkin was shot and the Tsarevich Alexei was killed, one soldier repeatedly trying to shoot or stab the boy in the torso. The jewels sewn in his clothes protected him, and finally another soldier fired two shots into his head. Tatiana and Olga were then killed by single bullets to the head.The last to be killed, Maria, Anastasia and the maid Demidova, were on the floor beneath the room's one window. As the soldier approached, Maria stood and struggled with Ermakov as he tried to stab her. The jewels in her clothing shielded her, and Ermakov claimed that he killed her with a shot to the head. Ermakov then struggled with Anastasia, failed to stab her, and said he killed her, too, with a shot to the head. Maria's skull shows no trace of bullet wounds and it is unclear how she died. Ermakov was quite drunk during the murders and possibly his shot only creased Maria's scalp, knocking her unconscious and producing considerable blood flow, but not killing her. Then, as the bodies were taken out of the cellar room, two of the grand duchesses showed signs of life. One sat up and screamed, throwing her arm over her head, while the other, bleeding from the mouth, moaned and moved slightly. Since the head wounds inflicted on Olga and Tatiana were instantly fatal, it is likely that Maria, perhaps only unconscious, was the sister who screamed, while Anastasia may still have been able to move and moan. Although Ermakov's archived statement does not say so, he told his wife that Anastasia was finished off with bayonets, while Yurovsky wrote that as the bodies were carried out, one or more of the girls cried out and were clubbed on the back of the head. But again, the back of Maria's skull shows no traces of violence, and Anastasia's burned and fragmented remains, identified in 2009, offer no clues to the cause of her death.